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Food waste recycling in rural areas has a number of roles to play and can bring significant benefits.

Local community composting groups for example can bring a number of benefits including much needed employment opportunities and enhanced community cohesion. Community composting also ensures that there are local outlets for compostable wastes with the end products also used locally in gardens, parks and small scale agricultural type holdings.

Food waste recycling in rural areas may provide business opportunities for private sector service providers looking to offer a collection service to rural businesses with the material collected being processed in either local anaerobic digestion (AD) or composting facilities. Where food waste is processed in AD facilities there will be scope to produce energy that can be utilised locally to the benefit of the community.

Local solutions for food waste also have the potential to reduce costs as it removes the need to transport food waste, as part of the mixed waste stream, over long distances for processing elsewhere.

Under the Food Waste Support Programme, delivered by Zero Waste Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government, we have allocated £5 million for the 2013-14 financial year. A further £5 million has been allocated for 2014-15 for food waste recycling initiatives.

Early next year we will run a national campaign to promote household food waste collections and encourage uptake of this new service. This campaign is expected to cost around £0.6 million.

The capture and recycling of food waste from both households and businesses is key to achieving our 2025 recycling target for all waste. Historically, most of the food waste produced in Scotland was sent to landfill where it breaks down producing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. The measures introduced last year in our Waste Regulations will ensure that this is no longer the case.

Instead, collected food waste will now be sent for processing at anaerobic digestion or composting facilities allowing us to not only reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions but also produce outputs that can be used in agricultural applications. Where food waste is processed in anaerobic digestion plants we can also produce energy, thereby contributing to our renewable energy targets.

To promote the recycling of food waste we have provided additional funding for a number of initiatives.

In 2011 Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) launched its Food Waste Support Programme. This runs through to 2014-15 and will see councils receive in the region of £20 million of additional support to help with the roll-out of household food waste collection and recycling services.

In 2012 the Scottish Government ran a national food waste prevention campaign. The cost of this was £0.58 million.

From 2007-08 to 2010-11 we provided funding of £3.49 million for home composting initiatives. From 2011-12 home composting initiatives have been funded under ZWS’s food waste programme. Breakdown as follows:

Since 2007-08 we have provided around £7 million to support the development of anaerobic digestion and composting facilities, thereby helping the growth of this sector in Scotland. Breakdown as follows:

The Scottish Government has a target to recycle at least 70% of Scotland’s waste by 2025. No specific target for food waste has been set, but the capture and recycling of food waste is recognised as being key to the achievement of our 70% target.

The measures included in the Waste Regulations, approved by Parliament last year, will ensure that the majority of food waste produced by businesses and households in Scotland is captured for recycling.

A copy of a table showing how much money has been spent on the maintenance and upgrade of trunk roads in each complete financial year since 2007, listed by road, has been placed on SPICE, BIB number 55187.

This issue remains under consideration and the final position will be confirmed in due course.

The Scottish Government takes a national approach to tackling child poverty, with action at a local level being the responsibility of the local authority. It is therefore not possible to provide figures at that level. In terms of overall government spending, I would refer the member to the following link for further information:

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In the spring we will publish a revised child poverty strategy, building on our commitment to do all we can to maximise household incomes and improve children’s wellbeing and life chances. We will work with the Ministerial Advisory Group on Child Poverty and other interested parties to ensure that the strategy describes an approach through which we can work together to tackle child poverty in Scotland. Only with access to our own resources and the ability to join up policy across devolved and reserved areas, can we make the substantial difference we need to and tackle child poverty for good.

Local authorities have statutory responsibilities for managing air quality in their areas under the Environment Act 1995 and associated regulations. These place clear expectations on local authorities to pursue air quality objectives. The Scottish Government provides practical and financial support to assist local authorities in undertaking these duties.

The Scottish Government places no separate expectation on community planning partnerships (CPPs) to reflect a local authority's air quality objectives in their single outcome agreements (SOAs). CPPs have developed their latest SOAs in accordance with guidance jointly published by the Scottish Government and COSLA in December 2012. It is for CPPs to establish the content of their SOAs, based on their understanding of local place and with partnership working at their heart. Their emphasis is towards themes on which integrated working can make a real difference to improving outcomes, preventing harm and reducing inequalities.

The Scottish Government works closely with local authorities, Transport Scotland, SEPA and other partners to ensure that the air quality objectives are achieved. The planning system has a key role to play in this process.

The third National Planning Framework Main Issues Report was published for consultation from 30 April to 23 July 2013. Its spatial strategy emphasises the importance of reducing emissions from the energy and transport sectors, and notes the continuing role of planning in providing environmental protection. NPF3 will be finalised by June 2014.